This invention relates to the field of sport fishing equipment, and more particularly to fishing lures for trolling, having replaceable decorative and fish attracting skirts or shrouds to provide a wide selection of lures with a minimum of parts.
Skirts or shrouds are available in a wide color range with different degrees of reflectiveness and brilliance. Attachment of these skirts or shrouds to the head of a lure must be in a removable fashion for interchangeability at minimal cost and parts.
Lures have been fashioned after smaller marine life so as to deceive game fish into taking the bait or lure. Although the leading portion or head of the lure may resemble the head of bait fish, it is believed the body and attached streamers or skirt attract the game fish.
An early example of these streamers or skirts is the use of feathers peripherally attached to a disk-like body, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,741 --Wolfe, having a stem or head stop positioned axially to one end. The body has an axial bore through the stem and the disk. A head, also with an axial bore, slidingly fits over the stem of the body. A leader, attached to a fishhook, feeds through the axial bore of the body and terminates in front of the head and is affixed to a fishing line. If another color of skirt is desired, the complete body is replaced, sliding a different body into the head and again feeding the leader through the body. A disadvantage of this arrangement is the need for a separate set of feathers or skirt for each desired color.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,067 --West shows a fishing lure skirt made of a resilient tubular material, slit in small streamers at its trailing end, and with its forward section slid over a body and protruding somewhat and a head having a hollow tube embedded therein with a rearwardly extending threaded extension. A portion of the skirt is clamped between the body and the head. There being no permanent bond between the body and the skirt, loosening of the threaded connection and relaxation of this compression could allow the skirt to slide off the body.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,768 --Sorace shows a lure head and a rearwardly extending stud provided with an axial bore to receive a leader. A skirt is permanently bonded to the periphery of a nut-like body, which is threaded onto the stud.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,004 --Schott discloses a fishing lure having a hollow, tubular, decorative shroud with a threaded neck and a mating threaded cap which frictionally fits into a central cavity in the rear of a lure head. Striated surfaces on the cap and in the cavity allow the cap to be rotationally oriented to the head for alignment of decorative surfaces on the head and the shroud. An anchor centered around the shank of a hook provides further assurance of holding the cap within the head when the pull of the lure is from a fish trolling line to the eye of the hook forward of the head.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,688 discloses a fishing lure having a skirt with an elastic band, and it is shown mounted in two opposite orientations on a body member that remains in a single orientation.
Although the foregoing examples have various advantages, a need still exists for a versatile lure which provides the ability to use a variety of fish attracting colored skirts with a simplified inexpensive assembly.